Black Mesa

Chell looked down at her new portal gun. She saw a new trigger on it as she examined it; Auto-track. She paused. Was it a good idea? She couldn't help thinking it might just be a trap, after what GLaDOS had said, and how much she had thought through it. It wasn't like Her to not think through plans...

Clearing her head, Chell took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. She instantly heard a tinny voice, that sounded like the announcer; "Please insert name of destination."

The small companion heart opened to reveal a tiny keypad. More keyboards, Chell thought, irritated. She was sure GLaDOS saw how much difficulty she had with typing and decided to add a keypad into the portal gun. Still, how else was she supposed to tell the portal gun where to go? Sighing, she slowly typed in; Black Mesa.

"Please do not move while your portal is deployed," The announcer commanded as the portal gun gave a shudder. "Portal will be deployed in three... two... one..."

The portal gun gave a voilent jerk and a bright blue spark of lighting shot from the "operational end", as GLaDOS had described it years ago. Chell watched the lightning fade and shot a portal onto the ground before jumping through it.

She fell forwards, but landed softly in warm sand. Chell picked herself up, taking in her surroundings. She had just landed in the middle of a desert. She knew this was a trap.

She turned back to her portal, but instantly noticed a large building in front of her. Maybe it wasn't a trap. Maybe, for some reason, GLaDOS was actually being genuine for once. She edged round the building quietly, looking for an entrance. It wasn't a large building; only just about the size of a small apartment, like the one she had left behind. She was already missing home, that lovely feeling of knowing where she was...

Chell shook herself free of her thoughts. She was not being so pathetic, and she was not heading back. She was going to make those idiots fix Wheatley... But what if they couldn't? What if he was gone forever? What if he was- No. He couldn't be. It just couldn't happen. Chell pushed the thought out of her head again and continued to search for an entrance.

The building was completely windowless, but there was a door on one of the walls. Chell tried turning the handle, but it was locked.

What did she have on her that could pick locks? She could use the pointy bit at the end of the gun, but if it broke her portal gun she could be in a lot of trouble. Maybe it was an idea to look through the keyhole, before- wait. Of course! The keyhole. Chell aimed her portal gun through the tiny hole and shot her orange portal inside. She knew she was losing the portal back at Aperture but she could just use the tracking system when she needed to get back.

Chell shot a blue portal on the wall outside of the building and cautiously looked through. There was no-one there, so she sneaked into the room. Instantly she heard a loud bleeping sound, and a series of gunshots sounded followed by a splintering pain in her left arm - cieling turrets. Gasping in agony, Chell stumbled back through the portal, dropping her portal gun, and sank to the floor, clutching her arm.

Chell remembered how in Aperture her wounds from turrets had always healed instantly. That was because of the nanobots that always repaired any damage, but there was none in Black Mesa to stop the pain. She took her hand away from her arm, and saw that it was glistening scarlet with blood.

Struggling to think straight from the pain, Chell realised she would need to stop the blood from flowing. What did she have on her? Of course, she could use her hairband... but it might not work.

Chell pulled her hairband out of her hair with a shaking hand. She flinched in pain as she wrapped it round her right arm over the punctures in her skin... how deep did those bullets go? At least the hairband seemed to be slowing down the bleeding, but Chell wasn't sure how long she would have before... no that wouldn't happen, it couldn't.

Despite the agony in her left arm, Chell pulled herself together, picked up her portal gun and stood up. She was going to get in there and get Wheatley, and they were both going to live.

How could Chell get rid of the turrets on the cieling? She remembered back to when she was a test subject, and she had wrecked GLaDOS' cameras by putting portals on the walls they were attached to. Of course! Well, at least being GLaDOS' test subject had taught her one lesson. Chell pointed her portal device through the keyhole again and shot at the cieling where the turret was. She looked through the keyhole and smirked when she saw the turret curling up on the floor.

She walked slowly and cautiosly through the portal, hoping there wasn't any other turrets. Luckily the room was empty apart from an elevator and a sign with a map on it. Chell scanned the map for a moment. The place was massive; there was a whole underground network of corridoors, laboratories and test chambers. Where would they have taken Wheatley? The unidentified objects department? That seemed the best place to go.

Chell hesitated before stepping into the elevator. What if she was caught out with all her Aperture gear on? She was sure she'd get into trouble, seeing that Aperture and Black Mesa seemed to be such strong rivals. She decided to keep the portal outside where it was so that if she needed to get back quickly she could. There was no point taking off her long fall boots; If they saw her with the portal device they would come after her anyway.

She finally stepped into the elevator. Feeling a jolt of pain in her arm again, she leaned against the metal wall of the elevator for support. How long would the hairband hold up?

With a voilent jerk, the elevator began to descend into the unknown depths of Black Mesa's facility...

A long time passed as Chell sat in the elevator, listening to it creak as it sank deeper into the ground. What would be waiting at the bottom for her?

With another sudden jolt the elevator came to a stop, shuddering as the doors slid open with a loud hiss. Chell stepped out of the lift carefully and looked around.

Infront of her lie a long wide corridoor, stretching into the distance, it's white walls lined with metal doors. Dim, flickering lights clung to the ceiling, and occasionally broke the silence with their quiet clicking sounds. The metallic, salty smell of rust filled the air, and small sprouts of plants hid in shadowy corners.

Chell crept along the corridoor, trying to stifle the loud screeching of her long fall boots scraping the damp floor. Approaching the first door she came across, Chell read the worn writing on the rusting metal; Department 001 - Product Testing. She stared through the cracked window and saw another corridoor leading off. Just as she was about to turn around, she heard the sound of a door opening further up the corridoor-

Without thinking, Chell shot a blue portal at the glass and it shattered loudly, echoing throughout the facility. She quickly placed her blue portal on the other side of the door and her orange one on the wall where she was. She dashed through the portal and closed both of them behind her. She held her breath as she sank to the floor, listening to the footsteps getting closer and closer-

"Wow, this place is a wreck," She heard one of them say, right next to her. "Look at this glass, it's completely smashed. We really need someone else to look after this place, the cleaners need to be fired..."

Their voices faded as they passed her. She let out a sigh of relief as she relaxed for a second before picking herself up and walking down the corridoor of Department 001.

The first door she saw had large, bold writing on it; Enrichment Center. Dread filled her as she looked cautiously through the glass window, and saw a horribly familiar white test chamber. Inside she could make out a test subject with their back to her.

Chell hesitated. Should she go in? What was she going to get from it? What if Black Mesa were monitering the tests? They probably were, and she was going to be in a lot of trouble if she was caught. But she had to. There was someone in there, that was probably going to be trapped in there for the rest of their life, like she thought she had been at Aperture. She had to at least try to save them.

Chell smashed the glass window with her portal device, and the test subject span around, a look of fear on her face. For a split second, Chell stared into those dark brown eyes, and something clicked into place in her head... An old memory came back - but before she could think, she felt an iron grip on her shoulder, and heard a voice drawl her ear; "What's this we have? I'll take that, thanks." Her portal gun was snatched roughly out of her hand as she was dragged away from the test chamber.

"Where did you get this? Answer me!" The man shouted at her. He shook her by the shoulders carelessly and she felt a stab of pain in her left arm as his fingers sank into her wound. Chell felt warm blood trickle down her arm again as her hairband was removed roughly from her arm. "Ah, our turret's handiwork," The man laughed as he threw the hairband aside. "You're coming with us."

Chell felt her head spin as she was dragged along the corridoor, and gave up trying to escape - it was no use. A door was opened and she was thrown into the room, her body slamming against the wall with a sickening crack-

She felt a throbbing pain in her head as warm blood trickled through her hair... Rapidly losing conciousness, she collapsed to the floor...